Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
I'm really beginning to dislike my guitarist...
- Thread starter jmattbassplaya
- Start date
I'll say. It's inappropriate to compare disabled people to guitards. A real insult to the disabled.
Dave, is that you? Sounds like my old singer...how do you need 4 hours to set up for a bar gig, unless you have Van Halens PA or something. Or are you in a 12 piece band maybe? I don't think there's any reason a 4 piece band with an 8-12 channel board, drum kit and 3 amps should need any more than 2 hours, AT THE MOST, to set up and sound check, in ANY bar. Less, if using the house PA. Bars don't pay enough for me to be there all friggin' day for a gig...
I play in an 18-piece band. We need, at most, 2 hours to set up.
Read mellowinman's now-closed thread entitled "Happy New Year." It will give you some insight into why it takes his band so long.
I would hope nothing "falls off the truck" and if it does, it might be time to consider some enclosed gear transport!
As for gear malfunctioning, it seems our guitarist has issue with whatever amp he is using at almost every gig. He's saving to buy a new one, but until then Im going to have to keep saving his ass.
Rickett Customs
Commercial User
Correction....
Patrick Swayze is your answer to everything!
Especially so if he is a horse who sounds liek Gilbert Gottfreid.
We usually take 2-3 hours if we bring all of the lights (basically 3 trusses plus extras).
This includes loading and unloading the truck, longer if it's out of town naturally, and there's only three of us doing the work.
16 channel board, 2 vocals, all drums miked, guitar amp miked, and DI for bass.
Apparently a lot more than most use, but it gives us a lot of headroom and some redundancy in case of failures.
As for the OP, I agree with all of the 'time to leave and take the drummer with you' posts.
The douche is trying to make you quit, best do it on your own terms and leave him off balance than the other way 'round.
This includes loading and unloading the truck, longer if it's out of town naturally, and there's only three of us doing the work.
16 channel board, 2 vocals, all drums miked, guitar amp miked, and DI for bass.
Apparently a lot more than most use, but it gives us a lot of headroom and some redundancy in case of failures.
As for the OP, I agree with all of the 'time to leave and take the drummer with you' posts.
The douche is trying to make you quit, best do it on your own terms and leave him off balance than the other way 'round.
Finally, a reasonable post.
We use a 16 channel board; all drums mic'd, three singers, and we split bass duty, so I have to tune and check two basses, a six and twelve string acoustic, and a keyboard, and the other bass player is hearing impaired, and has a separate board for her monitor mix, as well as a different bass rig than me.
I'd love to see some of these top professionals set us up in less than two hours.
In fact, I'd hire them!
How many people set up your 18 piece band?
How many mics do you use?
Based on the photos I've seen, your band looks WAY easier to set up than ours.
People really like to go AFTER people on this board!
So sorry I do things differently than you!
However, we are running our own sound, playing medium sized clubs that fill up with people who want to hear Classic Rock, and the bands we cover played through giant arena setups with pretty big sound.
You don't look like you even so much as mic the horn section. So you have each player bring in their own music stand, chair and instrument stand, and you mic the vocalist(s) out front. Do you even mic the drums?
I take just as long to set up, even when they don't pay me AT ALL.
Music is not a job for me. It's a mission.
And how in the heck do you do a 4 piece band with an 8, or even 12 channel board? Three singers, that's three channels; two bass players, that's two more; two acoustic guitars, that's two more; lead guitar, there's one; keyboard, there's one.
That's NINE channels, and we haven't talked about drums yet! Granted, most bands would use one less channel for bass, but that's still EIGHT. How do you put drums on FOUR channels?
Kick, snare, tom, tom, tom, tom, high-hat; I get SEVEN, and I don't even mic cymbals!
I think people need to understand that different types of bands have different needs. My first live show was in 1979, and I STILL don't see how we can set up in under two hours, no matter what you all say!
We always bring our own PA and lights, and like I said there's only three of us to load and set up.
If you have even two more people it can cut the times by half if they can work efficiently: everyone has a job and just does it.
In the past we often took longer with 4-5 people working, but there were several smoke/talk breaks taken, though this was planned for by setting up in the afternoon and then returning
30-60 minutes before start time that evening.
More of a relaxed pace/social thing.
Our drummer uses 7 channels: kick, snare, hihats, one overhead for cymbals, and 3 toms.
He made up a drum snake which bundles his lines going to the main snake.
I should note that the drummer and guitarist own the PA and do many sound jobs for others all year 'round.
They're the closest thing to a pro sound company in the area and do quite a good job.
We've all been playing paying gigs since the mid 1980s.
Between 2 and 4, depending on the gig.
Approximately 21, depending on whether we use 4 or 5 trumpets: 4 or 5 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxes, 3 vocals, guitar amp, drum overheads, snare and kick. Piano and bass go direct.
The only players who bring their own music stand are the drummer and piano player. The bass player is provided one of the band's logo stands, but (depending on the material being played at a particular gig) sometimes brings a second stand for himself to avoid page turns. No one brings his own chair: our contract specifies the number of chairs we need.
Every horn is miked. Drums are also miked.
Those are your words, but in the context of this thread it seems a lot more like you are the one going after others...
a goer, if you will.
- Jan 27, 2010
- 4,141
- 471
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Genz Benz Amplification
mellowinman said:
We're a 4 piece, we do 5 channels on drums(kick, snare, Tom, Tom, overhead), 3 vocals, 2 guitars, bass. 11 channels. Maybe you could have both bassists run into an a/b switch going to a single channel? And maybe tell the drummer to leave a Tom or two at home?
Not bashing you, just a suggestion.
Anyone else find it ironic that he's posting about how long it takes him and his band to set up in a thread that has zero to do with set up times, and yet he has yet to post in the thread that is dedicated to set up times?
I'd ask him to step out on a nice,cushy grass lawn somewhere,and proceed to drop him on his head. Sounds like you need to call his bluff,right now. I betcha he'd play nice from then on.
Yeah, I should post the same thing in the other thread, which I noticed after this one. I know! I could copy and paste my posts from this one.
I was going to let it lie, but I had a lot of responses to answer. Wouldn't it have been rude for me to ignore those who posted to me? I don't know, jmatt; is there something that hasn't been covered about your OP? I don't see ONE post by anyone implying or stating that your guitar player is right.
And Matticus, I haven't gone after anyone. I seem to have upset some sensitive sallies by implying that AN HOUR ISN'T ENOUGH TIME TO SET UP MOST PROFESSIONAL BANDS.
I think I've been quite reasonable, nice, AND polite, but with this forum, thinking differently than everyone else sure does get people riled!
I was going to let it lie, but I had a lot of responses to answer. Wouldn't it have been rude for me to ignore those who posted to me? I don't know, jmatt; is there something that hasn't been covered about your OP? I don't see ONE post by anyone implying or stating that your guitar player is right.
And Matticus, I haven't gone after anyone. I seem to have upset some sensitive sallies by implying that AN HOUR ISN'T ENOUGH TIME TO SET UP MOST PROFESSIONAL BANDS.
I think I've been quite reasonable, nice, AND polite, but with this forum, thinking differently than everyone else sure does get people riled!
